


Without Vanishing

by teacup_tyrant



Category: Six of Crows Series - Leigh Bardugo
Genre: Another Bed Scene, F/M, that's more about Inej than Kaz
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-18
Updated: 2017-12-18
Packaged: 2019-02-16 19:10:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13060329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teacup_tyrant/pseuds/teacup_tyrant
Summary: Inej stared at the bed for a moment and her heart began to beat faster. A thousand images flashed through her mind. Men with leering glances who were old enough to be her father. Young, power hungry men with wicked glints in their eyes looking to dominate everything and everyone they came across. Purple silks and the musical jangle of golden bangles.





	Without Vanishing

It was well known that Kaz Brekker was not one for proper goodbyes.

It was less known that Inej could be just as bad, if she felt like it. At the end of an evening of sitting in comfortable silence in Kaz's room, Inej would always leave in one of three ways.

Sometimes Inej would yawn and say goodnight, slide down the banister and march out the front door of the Slat. Sometimes she would say nothing at all and when Kaz glanced behind himself, he'd see nothing but an empty windowsill. Other times, Inej would look like she was on the verge of saying something, with her lips pulled tight in thought, but she'd say nothing and simply retreat slowly down the stairs.

On this particular night, the Wraith was more pensive than usual as she sat on her usual perch next to the window.

“What is it?” Kaz finally asked, trying to keep his tone casual.

Inej slid the whetstone down her knife with a _shink_ , and didn't place it to the blade again. “What is what?”

“You,” Kaz stated by way of explanation. “You've been sharpening that same blade for the last half hour. You're going to wear it down to nothing.”

Inej blinked and looked down. The knife was deadly sharp, much more so than usual.

“So I have,” she mused, pocketing the stone and leaning back against the wall with a sigh.

Kaz set his pen down on the paper and turned to face her, waiting for her to find her words.

“Wylan and Jesper are at the country house,” she started, fiddling with the knife.

“So?”

“So the Van Eck Mansion is closed up for the week. The servants went with them.”

“And?”

“And the last thing I want is to sleep on the ship some more. And it's not like my room _here_ is available anymore...” Inej trailed off, not meeting his gaze.

She was right. As soon as one of the Dregs noticed that Inej's belongings had vanished from her tiny room at the Slat, Kaz had given it to one of the higher up members of the gang who needed a place to stay. No point keeping the place empty out of sentiment. Inej had left and Kaz had soldiers needing shelter. Besides, she seemed perfectly content with her cushy bed at Wylan's home.

Kaz turned back to his desk and continued scrawling away at the paper on his desk. He tried to keep his voice as steady as possible, though his pulse had suddenly spiked.

“You can stay here if you want.”

He could feel her eyes fixed on his back, but he didn't say anything else. He could hear her unspoken questions anyway. _Here? Right here? In this room? With you? You're ok with that?_ No, he wasn't sure. But he was offering anyway. Maybe he wouldn't sleep at all. Maybe he'd root himself to his chair, balancing the numbers in his books all night and let Inej claim the bed all for herself.

She thanked him and the silence stretched on for minutes, an hour, a quarter past. Inej yawned, but Kaz showed no signs of slowing his bookkeeping, even when his candle burned low. He lit another.

Inej bit back an exasperated sigh and finally slid down from the window. Edging around the desk, she let herself into the tiny attached bedroom. She removed her vest and shoes, leaving on her long tunic and trousers, and piled them in a heap on the floor. She snuck a quick glance back at Kaz but he hadn't looked up from his work. Good.

She stared at the bed for a moment and her heart began to beat faster. A thousand images flashed through her mind. Men with leering glances who were old enough to be her father. Young, power hungry men with wicked glints in their eyes looking to dominate everything and everyone they came across. Purple silks and the musical jangle of golden bangles.

The sound of a door slamming in the hall below pulled Inej back to the present. She shook her head briefly, then slipped under the blankets.

Inej lay in the bed, staring up at the ceiling as the minutes ticked by, aware of how loud her own breathing sounded in her ears. It was so quiet in the room that every little sound felt deafening. She could hear occasional footsteps on the weathered staircase, bursts of laughter carrying up from below, the ever present sound of Kaz's glass pen cutting words into seemingly never ending sheets of paper.

Was he going to sit at that desk all night? Maybe that was why he had agreed to let her stay. She could have the bed and he'd stay well away, walls up, as usual. What had she expected to happen? What had she _wanted_ to happen? For Kaz to suddenly abandon all memories of his past and take her in his arms? That was about as likely as Jesper parting with his revolvers or Nina turning down a steaming stack of waffles. Inej sighed and rolled onto her side towards the window, away from Kaz.

It was only then that she realized that the sound of pen scribbling away on paper had ceased. She heard the creak of a chair scraping against the worn floorboards. A sudden puff of breath and the office was cast into darkness. The crinkling of fabric as a jacket and waistcoat were pulled off and abandoned.

Inej didn't move when Kaz stepped into the room. She didn't breathe as he hesitated, then climbed into the bed next to her. He was inches away, and Inej stayed motionless exactly where she was, making sure she didn't touch him. There were boundaries between them that they didn't cross. It was born out of a mutual respect.

“I thought you might stay at your desk doing paperwork all night,” Inej said finally.

“I considered it.”

“What made you stop?”

“I got tired.”

Inej could _hear_ the sarcastic look on his face without ever turning to see it. She knew very well that Kaz Brekker could stay awake for days. But then again, she understood that there were many different types of 'tired.' She supposed she was tired, too. And that was why she was currently at the Slat instead of alone at Wylan's mansion.

“Thanks for letting me stay.”

There was a short pause.

“You can stay whenever you want.”

“I'll hold you to that.”

“I hope you do.”

Inej smiled into the pillow. “Goodnight, Kaz.”

-

When Inej woke in the morning, the unfamiliar surroundings only confused her for a second. It wasn't that the _room_ was unfamiliar, but the act up _waking up_ there certainly was.

She glanced over at Kaz, his eyes closed, still asleep. His hair was mussed and rumpled, which was quite a contrast from how it looked in the waking hours of the day. And he was inches away from her, but he looked so calm, so perfectly at ease. There was no furrowed crease between his brows, no faraway scheming look in his eyes. It was a rare sight. She couldn't help staring. He must have felt the weight of her eyes on him because his own drifted open a few moments later.

“You're still here,” she whispered, as if she could barely believe it. She hadn't even meant to say the words out loud.

That was the difference. The men Inej had shared a bed with in the past would never be there in the morning. They didn't come to her chamber at the Menagerie for _sleep_ or for the pleasure of her company. She would wake up alone in the horrible purple room every day, no matter who had been there the night before. She had been glad of that at least. She didn't want any of them to stay once she had done what was required of her.

Those thoughts slipped from her mind as Kaz nodded slowly against the pillow, still blinking sleep from his eyes. “So are you.”

And he was right. She was still there. She hadn't disappeared. Hadn't vanished. She was still Inej Ghafa and she was still lying next to Kaz Brekker.

“Kaz?”

He quirked an eyebrow in question, eyes dark coffee brown in the glowing morning light.

“I'm glad you're still here.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> I know there's a metric ton of “Kaz and Inej in the same bed”stories... but lots focus more on Kaz because of ~touch~ and everything, but I think the situation would be more difficult for Inej.
> 
> Also, I literally have 26 pages of half written SoC ideas/stories. They'll get finished and posted eventually.


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